I got some new running shoes last Friday (woot!), and I was putting them on Saturday morning and happened to turn them over to look at the sole more closely. Lo and behold, there is a hash tag: #findyourstrong. I smiled, then took a pic and instagrammed it. Then I headed out on my first 4-mile run in over a month.

As I was getting through mile 1, I started to think about the hash tag.

Find your strong. Find YOUR strong, I thought. Not somebody else’s strong. Not somebody else’s mile time. It’s not “somebody else’s” run, it’s MINE. Whether I run a 10-minute mile, or a 12:30 mile, or I have to walk during my run. Who gives a crap? I’m finding MY strong. And whether that’s “good enough” for someone else is really irrelevant.

So I am feeling pretty bummed about my running lately. I started back last week after taking a month and a half off (I continued to do other aerobic activity, just took a break from running). I feel REALLY slow and it’s also really warm. I struggle with waking up early to get a run in, before the heat gets going too much.

I need to stop making excuses and just get out there and get my mileage in.